Скачать или смотреть THE "BUNKERFLAK": THE FATHER OF THE TANK DESTROYERS 🚜

❓ "How do you stop a tank that your standard guns can't even scratch?" In 1940, the German army was in a state of panic. Their standard 3.7 cm "Door Knocker" anti-tank guns were useless against the 60mm+ of armor found on British and French heavy tanks. The only solution was the 88mm Flak gun, but it was a massive, towed piece that took too long to set up. Enter the Bufla.

The Bufla was a marriage of convenience: a Flak 18 gun mounted on a massive 12-ton half-track. It was unarmored (except for a large gun shield) and had a high profile that made it an easy target, but it had one massive advantage: it could fire almost immediately.

During the Battle of France, the French Char B1 bis was considered nearly invincible. In several engagements, these tanks drove straight through German lines, ignoring dozens of hits. The Bufla was the only unit capable of stopping these breakthroughs at long range.

At the Battle of Arras, British Matilda II tanks nearly collapsed the German flank. Again, the 88mm (in both towed and Bufla form) saved the day by knocking out the thick-skinned British tanks from over a kilometer away.

Despite its success against tanks, the vehicle's official name was "Bunkerflak" because it was intended to destroy the steel-reinforced concrete pillboxes of the Maginot Line. It used a direct-fire optic that allowed the gunner to literally put a shell through a bunker's viewing slit from a mile away.

Only 10 of these "beasts" were ever produced. They were used by the Panzerjäger-Abteilung 8, and while they were highly effective, they were slowly whittled down by the harsh conditions of the Eastern Front. By 1943, the last of the Buflas had been destroyed or abandoned, replaced by more advanced, fully armored tank destroyers like the Nashorn and Marder. But for those early years of the war, the Bufla was the ultimate "big stick" of the Wehrmacht. Subscribe to see the historical stories they didn't teach you in school.